There was always support for top-up fees within the student movement though it was drowned out by the official line of the NUS. Ben Ullman, President of Bristol Guild of Students, is one of the dissenting voices. In a blog for the New Statesman magazine, Ullman argues that someone has to foot the bill, and it is only fair that graduates pay a portion of the fees considering they stand to benefit the most.
Some university Vice Chancellors, including our own, want to go futher, arguing for unregulated variable fees to enable British Universities compete internationally. The other option is for the State to increase funding. Personally I don’t find either particularly attractive. Though when it comes to competing with foreign universities, comparisons with the US show that what is needed is a more business led approach. American universities have been far more successful in the past 20 years at razing funds and investing them imaginatively rather than in traditional low yield investments. There needs to be a similar move in Britain, which would remove the need for the State and individual students to pay more.
